Clean Water, Closer to Home

In the remote Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea, something as simple as a cup of clean water used to mean a long and exhausting journey. For women and girls, especially, the burden of fetching water from distant streams was a daily reality, one that often took time away from education, work, and rest.

But in May 2024, change flowed into seven rural communities, thanks to Oxfam’s work on clean water and hygiene access.

In villages like Nogorunte, where Lavin lives, families once walked for hours each day to collect water from nearby streams. “We would spend about 2 to 3 hours each day doing that,” she recalls. Today, taps run right outside people’s homes, transforming daily life and lifting a major weight from the shoulders of women and girls.

Beyond convenience, Oxfam’s project prioritised dignity and inclusion, ensuring access to menstrual health and hygiene products and safe, private facilities for young women and girls. It’s part of a bigger push to break structural barriers and invest in the long-term well-being of these communities.

Hundreds have already benefited, not just with water, but with time, safety, and opportunity. And it all started with bringing clean water to where it’s needed most: home.